A simple and effective way of keeping your vinyl clean

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Apparently the USA-made Spin-Clean record washing system has been around since 1975, so it's clearly a case of better late than never, with Henley Designs having just signed up as UK distributor.

Supplied in an appealingly small and light box (vacuum-type record cleaners are large and heavy), it's basically a plastic bath in which you quite literally wash LPs. A pair of velvet pads apply light pressure to opposite sides of the disc, while you rotate it by hand through the cleaning fluid.

The clever feature, which we really liked, is that disc immersion depth is set by a pair of rollers, which can be put in position to cater to 12-inch, 10-inch or 7-inch discs – this saves the bother of fitting a centre spindle and clamp, as is done with the Knosti disc cleaner, a conceptually similar device.

Spin-Clean supplies a small bottle of cleaning fluid with the kit, which is claimed to be good for up to 700 discs – a four-times-larger top-up bottle costs £20 so running costs are minimal.

This fluid is some sort of detergent, added to water (tap, or ideally distilled) and lifts dirt which simply settles at the bottom of the bath. Records are dried after cleaning with the supplied lint-free drying cloths.

It's simple and quick to use and results are excellent, among the best we've encountered from any LP cleaner. The fluid is safe on all discs except cut lacquers (including 78s) and really the only drawback is the need for manual drying.